Integrated Assessment and Feedback Practices and Effective Transition to Junior Honours

This study focused on a newly implemented large science course whose main aim was to prepare students effectively for Junior Honours, and whose learning outcomes included the development of core competencies in scientific learning such as scientific writing and critical thinking. It provided fully integrated essay assignments with preparatory and supportive learning activities, and with multimodal feedback and feedforward opportunities. This study investigated the long-lasting impacts of these integrated assessment and feedback practices on the development of scientific writing and critical thinking skills in Year 2 undergraduate students. It examined the benefits on the students’ learning experience and academic performance in Year 2 and analysed their conveyance to Junior Honours. This longitudinal study over two years combined both quantitative and qualitative approaches to investigate the students’ academic performance in scientific writing tasks, the students’ perceptions of their scientific writing skills and of their abilities to do well in Year 3. The results showed that although less current students felt confident in their skills development than the previous cohort, they actually performed better in Year 3. The findings also showed that a large proportion of students from both cohorts were unsure about their abilities to perform well in the subsequent year as they didn’t know the work standards expected. These results illustrate i) the need to help students reflect on their performance and skills development and ii) the importance of clarifying the expectations of each year level to ensure more efficient transitions across years. We suggest that all learning activities (including assessment, feedback and skills development activities) should be considered from a global programme view rather than in isolation within in each course. This should clarify the conveyance of learning experiences benefits across year levels and help students reflect better on their skills development through their degree.</jats:p

An intrinsic vasopressin system in the olfactory bulb is involved in social recognition

Many peptides, when released as chemical messengers within the brain, have powerful influences on complex behaviours. Most strikingly, vasopressin and oxytocin, once thought of as circulating hormones whose actions were confined to peripheral organs, are now known to be released in the brain where they play fundamentally important roles in social behaviours1. In humans, disruptions of these peptide systems have been linked to several neurobehavioural disorders, including Prader-Willi syndrome, affective disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, and polymorphisms of the vasopressin V1a receptor have been linked to autism2,3. Here we report that the rat olfactory bulb contains a large population of interneurones which express vasopressin, that blocking the actions of vasopressin in the olfactory bulb impairs the social recognition abilities of rats, and that vasopressin agonists and antagonists can modulate the processing of information by olfactory bulb neurones. The findings indicate that social information is processed in part by a vasopressin system intrinsic to the olfactory system